The Sloth Build Thread - 2010 Prius Five

Hello community,

I figured I’d introduce myself a little and start a build thread for my newly acquired and beloved 2010 Prius Five.



As a bus driver in the Bay Area for nearly 10 years, I have to admit, I’ve done my fair share of Prius bashing - mostly focused on what I call the infamous “Race Prius”, the folks who seem to think they are driving a GTR and not a hybrid. Thankfully, this crowd seems to be a minority lol.

I am moving soon and will have a fairly substantial commute, about 90 miles round trip 5 days a week. I decided to crunch some numbers and figured I would save nearly 4K a year in gas alone by picking up a Prius versus driving my V8 4runner or my supercharged Tacoma to work. The decision was pretty straight forward, I had to find myself a nice commuter.

With the help of this forum and a few YouTube videos I dove headfirst into researching my options. I debated heavily between the lower purchase cost of a 2nd gen and the more modernized cabin and features of the 3rd gen. Given the amount of time I’ll be spending in the vehicle I decided to up my budget a little a bit and find a 3rd gen.

I wanted to avoid the 2010 models at first because of their oil consumption issues and being an early generation year model in general, however, I ended up finding a 2010 Prius Five with with outstanding service records, an excellent price, and in excellent condition. I moved on it immediately and picked up it the next day. Pardon the terrible pictures from pick up day, my nice camera is packed away for the move.



It is not perfect; rear deck lid is faded through, bumper sags, belt moldings on windows are failing, missing a map light cover, floor mats are pretty gross, rear hatch weather seal is failing, touchscreen is dead, suspension is completely shot, tires are nearing the end of their life, and the 17” persona wheels are curbed to hell and back, but all those things are easily fixed with a little time and money, they brought the price down considerably, and truth be told I absolutely love working on and building up vehicles.

In the 500 or so miles I’ve driven it so far (very mixed driving - highway, grades, city, short and long distances) with the 17” wheels, I’ve been averaging about 51 MPG - not bad for 161k on the odometer! Its’ last service was about 6k miles ago, so I’ve gotten everything necessary to give it a complete service, as well as addressing the above mentioned items that need replacement. Below is a list of the tasks I’ve set out to do and the parts I’ve acquired;

- Engine Oil & Filter - Mobil 1 Extended Performance High Mileage full synthetic 0W-20
- Engine Air Filter - aFe DryFlow drop in filter
- Cabin Air Filter - Microguard
- HV Battery Filter - Part #: G92DH-47010
- Transmission Fluid - Toyota WS
- Coolant - Zerex Asian Vehicle 50/50 premixed
- Suspension - Koni FSD struts front/rear - H&R lowering springs
- Wheels - Enkei RPF1 18x8 et 35mm @18lbs
- Tires - Vredestein Quatrac Pros in 215/40r18 @20lbs
- Infotainment - Pioneer DMH-7600NEX and Maestro RR unit for retention of steering wheel controls and camera
- Belt Moldings - Genuine Toyota Replacements
- Rear Hatch Weatherstrip - Genuine Toyota Replacement
- PCV Valve - Import Direct from O’Reilly’s
- MAF Cleaning - CRC Mass Air Flow Sensor Cleaner
- TB and EGR Cleaning - CRC Throttle Body Cleaner
- Brake Check and Caliper Slide Pin Lubrication - Permatex Ceramic Extreme Synthetic Brake Parts Lubricant
- All interior and exterior lighting being switched out with LED bulbs - Map lights, Door lights, Footwells, Glove Box, License Plate, Turn Signals, Reverse, Parking, Sidemarker, High Beams, Fogs - sourced through Amazon and Toyota
- Husky Liner Weatherbeater Floor Mats - Front/Back in Black
- Canvasback Cargo Area Cover in Black
- Map Light Covers - iJDMtoy via Amazon
- Bumper Sag fix via spacers and 3M adhesive - sourced at Home Depot
- Window Tinting scheduled for 5/18/2021 at a local shop
- Vinyl Wrap for roof - 3M in Black Gloss

I have also purchased an OBDII Bluetooth scanner to use Dr. Prius and get an idea of battery health, should arrive today. 12V battery, according to service history, was replaced in 2019, which I need to verify.

If there are any major maintenance items I have skipped please let me know!

I’m really looking forward to setting the maintenance baseline, and polishing up the problem items on the vehicle.

Also, I am considering front and rear sway bars. I am NOT looking to be a “Race Prius”, but I would like more stability and chassis control for handling. I am hoping the new struts and springs will take care of this, but the body roll at the moment is insane, and the steering feels very heavy and slow. Recommendations are welcome.

Stay tuned, a lot of stuff will be happening in the next couple of weeks, and I’ll do my best to document it all.

 

Thanks for the responses everyone, happy to be here

Thanks @PriusCamper - I reckon time and money on vehicles is nothing new to me haha, building is sort of my hobby and I have an amazing wife that understands projects make me happy. With that said, it sure will be nice to have a vehicle that gives financial returns in the form of gas saved and low upkeep costs!

Also, I know the link you sent was just to point me in the right direction, but those brackets look like the OEM body mounted brackets - are the clip areas lifted? I was under the impression it was the thin plastic on the bumper cover that is the culprit, so you need to either bracket the bumper covers’ area that clips into the body mounted bracket, or support the body mounted brackets with spacers so the bumper cover clips will stay in place.

Lastly, since I’ll be down around the TB and EGR pipe anyways I’ll just replace the PCV (I’ll come from engine top side rather than below, just another piece or two to remove and access is easy), it can’t hurt and only cost 8 dollars. It’s a strange design and placement, even if it is pristine my curiosity needs to see it lol.

@rjparker Thank you, I’ll take all the extra luck I can get Old habits die hard I guess, I’d rather know through my own experience the condition and state of my vehicles, so that when that rainy day arrives I’m not out stranded in it. Maintenance items weren’t much, and I’ve got my “justifications” for all the other splurge items lol. Sane driving for sure - bus driver, my days of speeding around are over now that my livelihood is connected to my license. I save my vehicular fun for 4 wheeling in the other Toyota’s

@Grit I did see mention of an OCC several times while researching things. I suppose the thought never really crossed my mind for a NA engine, but given the consumption issues I will look into it more deeply

 

@PriusCamper Yeah, I think it’s just a bit strange to put into words, but I believe we are just running circles around the same thing with two different solutions, each as viable as the next.

The Redbullet thing is intriguing, as I will have a substantial climb on my way to work in the morning.. thank you for pointing this option out to me. Time to research!

 

@Mendel Leisk That would certainly be appreciated haha. I found it strange that one side would be so far down and the other fine, led me to look underneath for signs of an accident, but found no evidence. In any event, I’m off tomorrow so I’ll be tinkering with the bumper sag and whatever other parts arrive, and will post back with results good or bad.

Pardon the lack of pictures, was a very tight schedule between my morning and afternoon shifts, but I did manage to knock out a few things today. I will try and catch up on photos tomorrow.

-Belt Moldings replaced
-Rear Hatch Seal replaced
-HV Battery Filter installed ( I feel like that is an overstatement, I clipped it on to the vent, all of 1 second)
-All interior and exterior lights replaced with LEDs, incurred hyper flash so ordered the appropriate flasher relay, arrives Friday.
-Engine Air Filter replaced with aFe DryFlow drop-in filter
-Cabin Air Filter replaced with Microguard
-Floor Mats replaced with Husky Liners
-Dropped off at tint shop - 20% all around except windshield
-Had a 2nd SKS Fob programmed

 

That was definitely my first thought as well. I couldn’t find any obvious signs of impact other than the sag itself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Put an order in for the Redbullet last night after digging around, thank you @PriusCamper for putting me onto that option. Also, do you have a part number for those clips, or are they generic clips I can find in my assorted bin?

After my OBDII BT scanner arrived a couple days ago I ran several Dr. Prius tests. Even taken with a large grain of salt, my results weren’t very enthusiastic. First test was 33%, but I didn’t feel I did a very good job at conducting it, so I tested a second time and got 57%, a third test after allowing the battery to cool back down resulted in 41%. A bit all over the place, but more or less in a degraded zone, with all three averaging out to 43.66%. A little late night research on results and options for the pack led me to order up an Prolong system to recondition the pack. Looking forward to EV mode lasting longer and ICE not kicking in as much. I’m pulsing and gliding as often as possible, and I’m getting pretty good mileage, so I’m thinking I should be able to eek out a few more MPGs.

I also ordered up all the fixings for an OCC, downloaded the files for the 3D printed bracket. I’ll tackle that while I have things taken off for TB/EGR/PCV cleaning and what not, should be a fun afternoon.

I have managed to get a few things done in the past couple of days outside of ordering stuff though lol;

- Replaced failed and or failing Belt Moldings with new units from Toyota.
- Replaced failed Rear Hatch Seal with a new unit from Toyota.
- Replaced missing map light covers with a new set off Amazon.
- Replaced worn stock floormats with Husky Liner Weatherbeaters (my other vehicles have Weathertechs, excited to compare).
- Replaced a moderately clean Engine Air Filter with aFe DryFlow Drop-in Filter.
- Replaced a moderately clean Cabin Air Filter with a new Microguard Filter.
- Replaced missing Rear Bumper Side Spoilers with new units from Toyota that I found in the cargo box under the carpet lol.
- Replaced footwells, glove box, doors, maps, dome, cargo, license plate, f&r turn signals, reverse, front sidemarker, high beams, and fogs lights with LED bulbs sourced from Amazon and Toyota.
- Replaced stock Flasher Relay with LED Flasher Relay from Amazon to combat the hyper flash that was brought on by the LEDS.
- Replaced failed stock Navigation HU with a Pioneer DMH-WT7600NEX and Maestro RR to retain factory steering wheel controls and backup camera.
- Installed USB/HDMI Port in a blank port below the Push to Start button, both ports integrated to the Pioneer HU.
- Installed HV Battery Fan Filter (install is probably too strong a term, took all of 1 second to clip it onto the vent).
- Installed AVS Low-Profile Wind Deflectors.
- Had a local shop tint all windows except windshield to 20%.
- Had a second SKS made and programmed at discount thanks to a local deal found on Craigslist.

Tomorrow I’ll probably work on the bumper and give the interior a good cleaning, try to get some of the stains out of the carpet and headliner, dust and small bits out of the crevices, and see if I can’t make the seats look a little more uniform.

I also have a few rattles I’d like to address.

The biggest one being the front passenger seat, thing looks like it’s having a seizure when I’m on the freeway, the back portion and headrest are all over the place. It doesn’t always rattle, I’d say maybe 30-40% of the time at highway speeds - but something is definitely loose between the bottom and back portions, as I can stop the rattle by putting pressure on the back section or headrest, but can not stop the rattle by putting pressure on the bottom portion.

I have a slight rattle in the driver side adjustable seatbelt slide, as well as a slight rattle in the driver side door when a bass heavy song is playing.

~EDIT: apologies for the double list, didn’t do those things twice haha

 

Didn’t take very many pictures while going through many of the tasks posted above, I’ll get out there tomorrow and snap some.

I did take some of the mess that is retaining factory steering wheel controls and backup camera with a Maestro RR lol. I swear I cleaned it up, so as not to have a rats nest of wires behind the dash, but I won’t be opening it back up to snap any pictures haha.



Can’t quite decide on placement of the screen.. aesthetically I like it up high, feels a bit more up to date, and gives me access to the new dash pocket thanks to the Pioneer being a single DIN unit. HOWEVER, it does block the air vents



I am going to drive it around for a few days in this position and see how quickly I can cool off the cabin by either diverting center vents to the side, or by angling them up and over the screen. The tint helps tremendously in keeping cabin temperatures down, so I don’t think it will be an issue, but I have dogs so keeping things comfortable is a must. If cooling isn’t satisfactory I will move it down and say farewell to the floating display look and dash pocket.

 

Right on, I have a Dollar store nearby, if I’m having a hard time in areas I’ll give it go.

The Belt Moldings are the weather strips along the lower outside rail on the windows. The inside of them is felt lined so as not to scratch up the glass when rolling windows up or down, and should rest against the glass if the window is up, or rest against the inside strip of the window is down. My two fronts had completely failed, one would fall into the window channel and the other would flap at the rearmost section. The rears were brittle and not long behind.